Well written policies and procedures which are communicated and applied consistently are the key to ensuring that the risk of discrimination is reduced as much as possible.

Employees (as well as workers and job applicants) could bring claims for discrimination on the basis of Age, Gender, Race, Beliefs, Marital Status, Disability and Sexual Orientation.

Care must be taken not to over generalise i.e. “everyone must wear trousers” or “everyone must work on a specific day of the week” as this could have a disproportionate negative impact on a sub sect of your workforce. Therefore you end up discriminating against some, as a result of trying to treat everyone the same.

It’s National Anti-Bullying Week, and shockingly, Acas have reported that over the past year they received around 20,000 calls about harassment and bullying at work.

Some callers even reported that workplace bullying caused them to self-harm or have suicidal thoughts.

Bullying is defined as any unwanted behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated, degraded, humiliated or offended. It’s not necessarily always apparent to others, and may be happening in the workplace without your awareness.

Recently published results of the largest ever survey (with 24,000 responses) regarding attitudes towards race in the workplace, contained some particularly troubling findings…

According to the Race at Work report from Business in the Community (BITC), racial harassment and bullying in the workplace is prevalent.

The report found 3 out of 10 employees in the UK had witnessed or experienced racial harassment in the workplace in the last year alone, a disappointing increase on previous years.

Only 55% of Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) workers said they felt like a valued member of their team, compared to 71% of white employees.

Despite this, 65% of BAME staff said they enjoy working for their organisation, compared to 61% of white employees. Additionally, 64% of BAME employees said they’re keen to progress in the workplace, whereas for white employees the number was a mere 41%.

Sandra Kerr, race equality director at BITC stated:

“Despite having greater enjoyment and ambition for work, the experience of workplace processes and cultures for BAME employees is certainly not ideal. This is compounded by the extremely worrying finding that incidents of racial harassment and bullying appear to be on the rise. The scale of this challenge is immense and needs immediate action.”

This report raises some major issues that employers absolutely must address.

But workplace bullying isn’t limited to racism.

Results of another study have been released this week, revealing that workplace bullying is a growing problem in Britain and many people are simply too afraid to speak up about it.

People don’t always feel confident enough to complain, particularly if the harasser is a manager or senior member of staff. Sometimes, they’ll quite simply resign.

It’s therefore very important for employers to ensure that staff are fully aware of the options available to them when it comes to bullying or harassment, and that these of course remain confidential.

These findings provide some real eye-opening truths on the current state of bullying in the workplace, and it’s vital that employers reflect on these results and have a good look at their working environment.

Start taking action today to ensure that your business is fully implementing anti-bullying policies and utilising managers with good people management skills. Here are some recommendations for taking action:

Promote training and awareness of bullying in the workplace (there are more incidences of bullying within minority ethnic groups; women in male-dominated workplaces; those with disabilities or long-term health problems; LGBT people; and those working in health care)

All people managers to have mandatory training to deal with bullying and harassment (inexperienced employers feel they lack the skills to go through complex grievance and disciplinary procedures that bullying allegations may involve)

Managers at every level to have objectives around ensuring harmony and inclusion in their teams (managers alerted to bullying allegations may favour simply moving staff around rather than investigating and dealing with underlying behaviours)

Senior leaders to recognise that harassment and bullying exists and take action to erase it from the workplace

Employers to review succession planning lists to ensure the inclusion of diverse talent from all walks of life

Ensure appropriate policies and procedures are in place (barriers to people making complaints to do something about unwanted behaviour might make the situation worse)

You may not be aware of any bullying or harassment in your workplace, but according to these recent results, the chances are there may be something going on.

Bullying is the enemy of diversity and consequently, business performance and profits.

By not challenging unacceptable behaviour and not effectively implementing your Anti-Bullying Policy, you put your diverse culture at risk, and ultimately, your business itself.

You can make a difference.

Commit to speaking out.

If you witness behaviour that you consider to be bullying or harassment, take action. If you hear someone in the office use unacceptable language, challenge it.

Let’s prevent these numbers from rising any further, instead, we can take action and decrease them.

If you’re interested any further advice regarding this sensitive issue, please don’t hesitate to contact us

And if you’d like to have a listen of my recent interview where I discuss my thoughts on this subject, you can do so by clicking this link!

Would you? Could you?
Over 100 UK businesses have pledged to recruit blind as a way of increasing social mobility and reducing the risk of discrimination candidates with submit their applications on standard company from without a name or school.

As an HR professional, I’m not sure how I feel about this.

15 years ago I developed application forms with tear off flaps for equal opportunity monitoring. The forms were all numbered sequentially and the applicant tracked through the system by number so we monitored age, gender and ethnicity. It actually made no difference to our employee demographics. It did however take time and resources to manage and continually monitor the applicants through recruitment, selection and promotion within the company. Even at the time, removing date of birth from the application form seemed odd – you just needed to look at when someone was at school or entered the workplace to be able to estimate their age.

So now we are removing name and school as well. Will it really make a difference? Will this prevent ‘the old boys network’ from blocking social mobility?

Companies signing up to the Compact have also agreed to use schools and other public forums to advertise work experience / intern opportunities rather than offering the places to informal contacts.

Thinking about your business, would you prefer to advertise for a junior in your local schools or take the son / daughter of an existing employee or a friend?

Is this the end of the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”?

Now, I don’t like scarring you, but in 2009 – 10, there were 392,800 claims of which 24% were working time directive related, 19% were unauthorised deductions from wages and 32% were unfair dismissal, breach of contract or redundancy related.

– In 2008 – 09 the highest award for unfair dismissal was just over £84k while the average was just under £8k. This excludes time and the cost of advice and representation.– For Race Discrimination the maximum award was just over £1.3m and the average award was £32,115.– Disability Discrimination cases settled by the tribunals included a case awarded £388,612, averaging £27,235.– For cases with Sexual Orientation Discrimination jurisdiction, the maximum award handed down was for £63,222, and these cases averaged awards of £23,668.

The biggest gift you can give your clients this year, is to make sure they are fully compliant with employment legislation.

Today, I want to help you to protect your best client. I am looking for a referral to your best client (as long as they are an employer).